Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 94. kötet (1994-1995)

Kisebb közlemények - Sherwood, Peter: Ob-Ugrian ’consume’ 119

OB-UGRIAN 'CONSUME' 121 The animacy hierarchy Kulonen's work has already shed light on the problems of the traditional terminology in respect of terms like 'passive'. More recently Marcantonio has commented on the terms 'definite' and 'indefinite' in relation to Vogul (Marcantonio 1994). My own point of departure is Austerlitz's early remark: "Our preoccupation with S, V, and 0 may be all wrong. We ought perhaps to think more abstractly, in terms of pronominal/nominal syntax, where pronouns, animates, and names occupy the S-slot and inanimates occupy the O-slot in transitive sentences and where any of the three can occupy the S-slot in intransitive sentences" (Austerlitz 1979. 77). This kind of contentive (as opposed to the form-based, SVO-oriented) typology is successfully employed by Dixon, for example, in a highly relevant work on ergativity (Dixon 1994). Taking my cue from Austerlitz, I shall make use of the animacy hierarchy (Comrie 1989. 185-200; this slots neatly into the nominal hierarchy of Dixon 1994. 85). The latter shows which NPs are more likely to be in A than in О function, where А = Agent (Subject of transitive verb), О = Object. (Note that this is a different definition of Agent from Kulonen's; see below). Speech Situation participants at the left-hand end of the hierarchy are most likely to be agents, in A function, while those at the right-hand end are most likely to be patients, in О function. The semantic basis of the role of A is most concisely stated as 'could initiate or control the activity' (Dixon 1994. 52). Ist person 2nd person Demonstratives Proper Common Nouns pronouns pronouns 3rd person Nouns Human Animate Inanimate pronouns more likely to be in A than in О function Given (say) a Human and an Animate as two roles in a sentence, the normal Interpretation will be to place the Humans as A and the Animate as 0; similarly with Animate and Inanimate: Animate as A and Inanimate as 0. Conversely, an Animate A (and/or a Human 0) would be specially marked. This will be relevant below. There is, however, potential for confusion. An Agent which is the Subject of a (transitive) verb is not marked in Ob-Ugrian (but see some discussion of 'ergative'sentence below). An Agent which is not the Subject of а verb with a passive marker is marked N(a) and in such sentences the Agent -Subject is demoted to Patient-Subject (unmarked). However, because of the Operation of the animacy hierarchy, in any particular Situation there is Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 94. 1994-1995.